Paige Lauren Billiot, 23, learned early in life that so-called "flaws" were something to embrace. The Los Angeles-based actress and filmmaker was born with a port-wine stain birthmark over the left side of her face.

"I experienced a lot of bullying, and that really affected me," she tells SELF. "I’d go home and cry and always wonder, 'Why can’t I be normal like everyone else?' All of that negative scrutiny basically made me hate my birthmark and the way that I looked...I felt alone and confused at a young age, so that was very hard to deal with on a daily basis."

A port-wine stain—which affects about three of every 1,000 people—is caused by swollen blood vessels, and it exists for life, according to the U.S. National Library of Medicine. It made growing up difficult for Billiot, and she became tired of the bullying and staring. That's when she hit a turning point.

Billiot bravely started to welcome the curiosity people had about her birthmark. She'd confidently acknowledge her port-wine stain when she introduced herself, explaining to people what it was. She says that's when she first started to accept her birthmark as not a flaw, but something that made her flawless.

"I realized a lot of those negative and harsh reactions people would [have] was really just a lack of education," she says. "And me just telling them what it was really helped them understand me as an individual. I still dealt with a lot of challenges, and I still do to this day...But thankfully at a young age I was able to accept and embrace how I was different, and that’s how I was able to push through any obstacle that I encountered."

Now, the actress is working to change society's perception of flaws like her birthmark through a project she created this year called Flawless Affect. It empowers people who have what they or society might consider a flaw—from external things like psoriasis to internal struggles like depression—by capturing them in stunning images and telling their story on the project's website and Instagram. In doing so, Billiot hopes to not just uplift the individual but change what people see as "normal" or "beautiful."

"I really wanted to change the meaning of what a flaw is," she says. "[It's] what makes you so unique." And she's right—we are all perfectly imperfect.

Billiot is the first person to tell her story as part of the project, and she posed for a series of high-fashion photos highlighting her birthmark. Some images show her nude in the desert, with mud imitating the pattern of her birthmark across the rest of her body. In others, she wears a striking red dress in a forest. She's posed for photos before, but she's never had her port-wine stain be the focal point in such a glamorous way. It was an exciting first for her, and she thinks society is ready to see flaws captured as flawless.

"I was really happy to create this whether it got a lot of recognition or not," she says. "It was a good outlet for myself."

The next photoshoot Billiot is planning for Flawless Affect will feature a friend of hers who sustained burns to 60 percent of his body as a child during a fire. She hopes to feature people with a range of "flaws" as she grows the project.

"I want it to be things that people can really relate to, and also things that aren’t as known," she says. "So far I’ve learned about so many conditions I never knew about, and I just want to have people see it in a completely new light."